Jake White (Gallo Images)
Ex Sport 24
Johannesburg - Former World Cup winning Springbok and now Brumbies coach Jake White has fired a broadside at South African rugby as he prepares to embark on his South African tour.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the Brumbies’ South African tour, White told his charges to expect plenty of mind-games and warned them against letting the hostile reception he anticipates at Loftus Versfeld to disturb their focus.
'Let me warn you it's going to be massive, they're going to go for me I'm going to tell you right now,' White said. 'They're going to try and unsettle the squad by having some sort of dig at me, whether it's that I've deserted them … I don't really know what they'll try and do.”
'But they'll use whatever they can, not only to bring more people to the stadium but also to promote the game and to harp up the whole thing,' he said.
White also told his inexperienced team to prepare themselves for a baptism of fire in SA and to prepare themselves mentally for the pressure.
'The reality is they're going to a rugby nation now who love their rugby, and will do everything they can to make sure they put the opposition under fire.”
'Nothing untoward, nothing illegal, they just love their rugby Oh that one coul dsay the same of the nz oaks), they want to win and will put pressure wherever they can. It's something we have to handle, and that's the uniqueness of going back to South Africa, as a South African coach, with a team that doesn't understand it.'
White eagerly distanced himself from his nationality and was keen to emphasise his loyalty to Australian rugby.
'I'm going back to where I was born and where I coached, but my home now is Canberra...I don't want them to think, as in the players, that I'm going home. My home is now here.
Jake you maybe pleasantly surprised with the esteem you are generally held in. I cant of course vouch for those oaks at Loftus!!! Don' t be too shocked at the shocking pink you find there!!!
Captain40,032 posts
17 Apr 2012, 15:28
#1
17 Apr 2012, 15:28#1
